19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, November 28, 1914: <<no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I recently came across this hundred-year-old description of soy milk. Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought you might enjoy reading it.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, November 24, 1914: <<no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Sometimes when Grandma didn’t write anything, I wish that she’d told us mundane things– like what her family discussed over the dinner table that day.
Maybe a hundred-years-ago today,the Muffly’s were talking about the recent accident in the nearby town of Watsontown.
What excitement! Thank goodness the accident wasn’t any worse than it was.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, November 21, 1914: <<no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought that you might enjoy some pictures and quotes from an article about how to draw caricatures that appeared in a hundred-year-old magazine for art teachers.
Caricature will furnish a legitimate outlet for the energy that creates disorder in the school. The study of humorous drawing develops the ability to make jokes. The teaching of caricature does not necessarily result directly in successful jokes in the classroom; it bears its best fruit in the increased skill and appreciation of the pupils. In this respect the teaching of caricature does not differ from any other lesson.
Youthful caricaturists need to be taught that kindness should be their guide in making a selection of the qualities which they exaggerate, and that the best sense of humor is that which we call good humor.
Clever boys especially are inclined to be cruel in their attempts at jokes; they need training to see that deformity, ignorance, and misfortune are pitiful rather than funny, that a joke must be considered from the point of view of the person joked as well as from that of the joker, that the greatest of strength lies in its gentleness.
Teach a child what is really funny and he will scorn to perpetrate, or even to tolerate, laughter at what is not. So through, the study of humor the teacher can make his worst enemy serve as his best friend.
School Arts Magazine (December, 1914)
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, November 19, 1914: <<no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on a tangent—
Sometimes I’m surprised how thoughts of Grandma pop into my head at the least expected times.
Last week-end my husband and I had friends over for dinner. It was almost time for them to arrive and I still hadn’t set the table.
I pulled some cloth napkins out of a drawer-and thought with dismay—“Dang it, I’m going to have to iron them.”
Annoyed, I dragged my heavy ironing board out of the closet—and suddenly thought—”Did Grandma also dislike lugging this hefty ironing board around?”
This makes perfect sense because I have Grandma’s ironing board.
She passed many years ago. It was shortly after I got married, and I needed an ironing board. So when the grandchildren were given an opportunity to select items they would like from her house—one of the things I chose was the ironing board.
I’ve used the ironing board for more than 35 years. It’s probably 60 or 70 years old (and probably could easily last another 60 or 70 years). I replaced the ironing board cover once a few years ago—but that’s it. It might be heavy, but it is also darn sturdy.
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, November 18, 1914: Today passed as other days. A few flakes flew this morning. Wish the snow would get down to business, for then I wouldn’t have to look after the cows. Today they went off to a neighbors and I had to walk after them.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm—apparently the cows were still out in the pasture, but after it snows they will be confined to the barn. During past summers Grandma mentioned several times that she needed to watch the cows. For example, on August 26, 1911, she wrote:
Everything seemed to have gone wrong today. Hard to tell what the cause really is. I have to watch the cows, and I don’t like it but school will soon start and then that task will be ended.
And, on May 18, 1912 she wrote:
What a doleful calamity. I had to watch the cows this morning, I mean this afternoon. I’m afraid that this is only the beginning. They got into the wheat for me.
This is the first time Grandma mentioned watching cows in the Fall in the diary—and I think that it’s the first time that she mentioned it in 1914.
I remain clueless as to why the cows needed to be watched. It still seems like they should have been securely contained in a field fenced with barbed wire, but obviously they weren’t (or if there was a fence it wasn’t strong enough).
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, November 13, 1914: Am awfully sleepy at present, so good-night.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Goodnight Grandma—
Have a sweet and dreamless sleep.
—
According to a hundred-year-old book:
A sound sleep is dreamless. Dreams require a certain expenditure of nerve force and mental energy, so that dreamless sleep is the most restful. Disagreeable dreams and nightmares are generally associated with indigestion and biliousness, which also occasion a general restlessness.
Personal Hygiene and Physical Training for Women (1911) by Anna M. Galbraith
19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, November 12, 1914: Mother and I went shopping. She’s doing more than I did of course. I got a coat, which is a blue and black boucle, a dress, gloves, and other things of lesser importance. I had a suit case full of stuff and then some more. Ma had her share, too. Fortunately we got a ride part way home.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I found this purple and black boucle coat on ebay. The era’s wrong (this is a 1950’s coat), and the color isn’t quite blue; but it can give you an idea of what Grandma’s coat looked like. I bet she looked awesome.
—
Grandma–
What a fun day! Nothing cheers a woman up like clothes shopping—especially when her mother pays for the clothes.
A Hundred Years Ago 